BUSINESS leaders from across the Tees Valley will gather today at the opening of England's biggest hydrogen plant.

The £30m facility at Huntsman's North Tees site, will be opened by Peter Huntsman, the corporation's president and chief executive, Rob Margetts, chairman of the BOC Group, and Ian Bill, chairman and chief executive of the Foster Wheeler Energy Group, which built the plant.

The plant will supply 32,000 tonnes a year of high purity hydrogen by pipeline to the company's production facilities at Wilton and North Tees.

Under a 15-year supply agreement with Huntsman, the plant will also supply 100 tonnes an hour of high pressure steam to the North Tees site.

Huntsman will use the hydrogen on Teesside as a key feedstock for its polyure-thanes raw materials manufacturing operations at Wil-ton, and its aromatics production complex at North Tees.

During the opening ceremony a plaque will be unveiled to symbolise the partnership approach adopted by the three companies.

Also in attendance will be senior representatives of other leading chemical companies, as well as leading figures from political and economic development groups in the Tees Valley.

In addition to the £30m investment in the plant itself, a further £10m is being spent on associated new infrastructure, pipelines and high purity water supplies by Huntsman and Hartlepool water company, h2go.

That has involved the construction of specialist water treatment plants at Huntsman's Tioxide, Greatham and North Tees sites and pipelines to supply large volumes of water to the North Tees site for the BOC hydrogen plant and other installations.